රිචඩ් සොයිසා ගැන වැඩිදුරටත්…
Replying to C.A. Chandraprema, an Island editorial, Justice Minister Batty Weerakoon and a state radio campaign against the Alliance for Democracy, Ivan explains his earlier remark on Richard de Zoysa. He recounts what a senior police investigator and a close friend told him: that de Zoysa was an active JVP supporter whose borrowed house sheltered Somawansa Amarasinghe, and that he was translating Wijeweera’s book on Eelam when abducted. He insists the murder was unjustifiable, discusses the class dimension of its prominence, and says his views are his own, not the Free Media Movement’s.
සාම කතා ඇරඹීම
Peace talks with the LTTE are due in early May, driven by international pressure after foreign help stopped the Tigers taking Jaffna. Ivan argues that the LTTE now knows Eelam will not be accepted and has softened its claim to be the sole representative of Tamils, but doubts the government’s maturity: it lacks an opposition consensus, a secure majority and internal unity. He urges state reform, accountability of the presidency and the independent commissions as the basis for consensus.
අපරාධ වර්ධනය හා දේශපාලන ආරක්ෂාව
Violent crime is blamed on army deserters, but the piece argues that the link with politicians’ security details is stronger. More than 3,000 personnel protect politicians, including 1,500 in the Presidential Security Division, and known criminals have been enrolled as auxiliary police on political recommendation, using their freedom from checkpoints. It cites criminals arrested at a PSD officer’s house and a deputy minister’s bodyguard among gangsters shot at Delkanda.
රාජ්ය ප්රජාතන්ත්රීය කිරීම
Ivan surveys reform proposals from parties and civil society: the UNP’s four independent commissions, the JVP’s call to abolish the executive presidency and for a state media commission, and the Alliance for Democracy’s conditions for reforming the presidency, on dissolution, appointing the Prime Minister and Cabinet, expulsion of MPs and emergency powers. He adds the Editors’ Guild proposals on criminal defamation, freedom of information and an independent Press Council, citing Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s dual roles.
වලව් මාලිගා විවාදය
Ranil Wickremesinghe attacked the Rs. 2,500 million presidential palace and its imported oak, marble and chandeliers; Mangala Samaraweera replied that the Bandaranaikes, born in walawwas, need no palaces. Ivan distinguishes royal palaces from the walawwas of radala nobility, notes that the Bandaranaike and Jayewardene fortunes rested on land granted for helping the British in 1815, 1818 and 1848, citing James Rutnam and Kumari Jayawardena, and says Horagolla is humbler inside than Temple Trees.
Democratising a rotten system
The political system has fallen so low that reforms are now demanded not only by political parties but by civic organisations. What is on the table — the commissions, the media provisions, the end of the rule that costs an expelled member his seat — and what it would take to get agreement on it.
රාජ්ය පාලකයන්ට රතු සංඥාවක්
During the President’s visit to the Netherlands, a lawyer for Tamil refugees sought a court order for her arrest under the Convention against Torture; the Dutch court rejected it only because it was not properly framed. The editorial draws the lesson that rights violations, attacks on democratic rights and plunder of public money are increasingly treated as international crimes, limiting where rulers can travel or flee.
යුද්ධ ආයුධ මිලදි ගැනීම හා දූෂණ
Justice Minister Batty Weerakoon told Parliament that the Bribery Commission is investigating a top Defence Ministry official over arms deals but refused to name him. The editorial says the official should be suspended by the President, under whom the ministry falls, notes that war spending has risen from Rs. 4,000 million to Rs. 6,000 million and is funded by a 7.5 per cent levy, and argues that secrecy in arms buying breeds corruption.
ප්රභාකරන්ගේ ඊළග පියවර කුමක් ද?
The editorial argues that the LTTE is trapped not by military strength but by a world order that no longer legitimises armed struggle, as the fall of Elephant Pass and the outside help that saved Jaffna showed. Mandela, the PLO, the IRA and the JVP adapted; governments that crush just grievances also face isolation. It assesses Prabhakaran as a gifted but ruthless commander, groups him with Wijeweera, Premadasa and Vijaya Kumaratunga, and says a turn to peace would multiply his strength.
JVP terror to the fore
The government is marking the anniversary of Vijaya Kumaratunga’s assassination as a general commemoration of those killed by the JVP, with a costly travelling exhibition and fresh legal action against those involved in the second insurrection. Ivan’s objection is not to the remembering.